Tuesday, May 7, 2013

World's Finest #12

As much as I hate to admit it, the World's Finest series has been a bit disappointing.

That despite including work by some of the industry's top talents, including writer Paul Levitz, who is (usually) one of DC's best writers, and Kevin Maguire, a fantastic artist who specializes in beautiful women.

And I like the main characters - Power Girl and Huntress - so what's wrong?

I think part of the problem is that the "New 52" version of the characters are from Earth-2, exiled to Earth-1 during a battle with Darkseid, and they've had virtually no contact with the other heroes of Earth-1.

You'd think Superman's cousin and Batman's daughter would reach out to their counterparts - especially since they've been on Earth-1 for years now.

The other problem is that they're completely focused on finding a way back to their reality - and that seems to be the only driving force in their life. They often don't win the fights they get involved in (they certainly don't win in this issue) and they seem to spend a significant portion of each issue running away from something.

The other other problem (sorry) is that the art in each issue is fragmented between two or three artists. That's OK when the artists are top-tier like Maguire and George Perez, but with this issue we have Maguire doing seven pages, and the rest provided by Geraldo Borges and Robson Rocha - good enough artists, but they don't match up well to Maguire's mastery.

I think it's just been a bit of a miscalculation in the original concept (I'll blame editorial interference, just for the heck of it). With some fine tuning, a stronger sense of fun, a little less death and destruction, a different direction, some decisive victories and the vision of a single artist and I think this series can turn things around.

They did finally put Power Girl back in her traditional costume - but that's just a baby step.

Grade: C+

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